Austorc d'Aorlhac or Aurilhac (fl.

Floruit

Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...

 1250) was an Auvergnat troubadour

Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....

 from whom only one sirvente

Sirventes

The sirventes or serventes is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. In early Catalan it became a sirventesch and was imported into that language in the fourteenth century, where it developed into a unique didactic/moralistic type...

 survives. He was from Aurillac

Aurillac

Aurillac is a commune in the Auvergne region in south-central France, capital of the Cantal department.Aurillac's inhabitants are called Aurillacois, and are also Cantaliens or Cantalous in Occitan....

.

Austorc's only piece, "Ai! Dieus! Per qu'as facha tan gran maleza", was composed after the defeat in 1250 of the Seventh Crusade

Seventh Crusade

The Seventh Crusade was a crusade led by Louis IX of France from 1248 to 1254. Approximately 800,000 bezants were paid in ransom for King Louis who, along with thousands of his troops, was captured and defeated by the Egyptian army led by the Ayyubid Sultan Turanshah supported by the Bahariyya...

 under Louis IX of France

Louis IX of France

Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...

. It was Hermann Schindler who first proposed that the piece referred to the Crusade of 1250 and not that of 1270

Eighth Crusade

The Eighth Crusade was a crusade launched by Louis IX, King of France, in 1270. The Eighth Crusade is sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades of Frederick II are counted as a single crusade...

, on which Louis died. Whatever the Crusade, Kurt Lewent, whose dissertation was the first major study of Occitan Crusading songs, believed that Austorc was a combatant in it. Austorc was surprised that God would allow the Crusade's defeat, but not surprised that Christians

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 would therefore convert to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

. An excerpt goes like this:

Crestiantat vey del tot a mal meza, tan gran perda no cug qu'ancmais fezes; per qu'es razos qu'hom hueymais Dieu descreza e qu'azorem Bafomet Baphomet Baphomet is an imagined pagan deity , revived in the 19th century as a figure of occultism and Satanism. It appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century... , lai on es, Tervagan Termagant In Medieval Europe, Termagant was the name given to a god that the Europeans believed Muslims worshipped.-Origin of the concept:European literature from the Middle Ages often referred to Muslims as pagans, with sobriquets such as the paynim foe...  e sa companhia, pus Dieus vol e sancta Maria que nos siam vencut a non dever, e·ls mescrezens fai honratz remaner.

I see that Christianity has been badly hit; I do not believe that we have suffered such a great loss (as this). And it is therefore reasonable that we from now on abandon our belief in God and (instead) worship Mohammed there where he is, and Tervagan as well and his companions, since God and Saint Mary desire that we be conquered unjustly and the infidels have all the honor.

Five stanzas in length, the sirventes stands incomplete: the first and last stanza contain lacunae and the final words of the tornada

Tornada (Occitan literary term)

In Occitan lyric poetry, a tornada refers to a final, shorter stanza which is addressed to a patron, lady, or friend. They often contain useful information about the piece's composition and the troubadour's circle....

 are lost. It is a contrafactum

Contrafactum

In vocal music, contrafactum refers to "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music"....

 of a canso

Canso (song)

The canso is a song style used by the troubadours. It consists of three parts. The first stanza is the exordium, where the composer explains his purpose. The main body of the song occurs in the following stanzas, and usually draw out a variety of relationships with the exordium. The canso can end...

 by Peirol

Peirol

Peirol or PeiròlIn Occitan, peir means "stone" and -ol is a diminutive suffix, the name Peirol being understood as the equivalent of "Little Stone" but also "Petit Pierre" or "Pierrot" ; however, "peiròl" also meant a cauldron or a stove...

, "M'entencio ai tot'en un vers mesa." Only a few years earlier another sirventes and Crusade song

Crusade song

A Crusade song is any vernacular lyric poem about the Crusades. Crusade songs were popular in the High Middle Ages: 106 survive in Occitan, forty in Old French, thirty in Middle High German, two in Italian, and one in Old Castilian. The study of the Crusade song, which may be considered a genre of...

, "Ir'e dolors s'es dins mon cor asseza", by Ricaut Bonomel

Ricaut Bonomel

Ricaut Bonomel was a Knight Templar and troubadour in the Holy Land around the time of the Eighth Crusade. He was an outspoken critic of Charles I of Naples and his attempts to secure a throne in Italy, and of the Papal policy which diverted funds intended for the Holy Land to other purposes...

 had been composed as a contrafactum of Peirol's canso.

There was an Austorc d'Ornac who served as a consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 at Montpellier

Montpellier

-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

in 1252.

External links

• Lyric allusions to the crusades and the Holy Land